Friday Foto Friends: Hold On!

Hold On!

(Anhinga, holding on to a small branch in the middle of the storm in the middle of the pond)

22 "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 

Juvenile Goldfinch?

24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works"

Hebrews 10:22-24

Male Eastern Bluebird

"Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

Great Blue Heron

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

Isaiah 41:10

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

John 14:27

Hello friends! I hope you enjoyed these pictures and the message  of hope above from Still Waters Pond today. These are some good thoughts to ponder on our Lenten journey.

Sometimes when things are dark and gloomy, and the news around the world is even darker and gloomier, we need to remind ourselves that God is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us, and we need not be troubled or afraid.  Just keep holding on...God is faithful and He will see us through no matter what the storm may be. 

Speaking of storms:  It's been raining "cats and dogs" here since last night, with a few breaks here and there, but no sunshine to brighten the day. However we needed the rain. The pond was beginning to recede and needed refreshing. So did the flowers and trees and grass. We are very thankful for the rain. However, not so sure about the freezing temperatures that are supposed to be on the way this weekend! Yes, that's right, here in sunny Florida in the middle of March we are expecting a low of 26 degrees on Sunday morning...that along with the fact that we have to "spring ahead" to daylight savings time Saturday night should make for a very chilly start to our Sunday morning wake up.  We have to be at church for Sunday School at 8:30 a.m., which will feel like 7:30 to our body clocks, so I expect it will be a slow start to our class...thankfully my hubby is the teacher or else we just might be tempted to roll back over and snuggle down under the covers for a while...

It hasn't all been dark and gloomy the past few days. Yesterday the geese were enjoying congregating over by the island in the pond...

Canada Geese

They are fun to watch and can be very entertaining.

Once in a while they come into the yard and eat bird seed off the ground:

And when they hear anything that spooks them they start honk honk honking and take a running leap and up into the air they go:

And if you look really really closely you can can see them flying way over there across the pond:

And wow, just as I was typing this, I looked outside my window and saw two very large white birds fly in and land in Still Waters Pond. By the way, the rain has finally stopped and the sun is shining. It is almost 5:00 p.m....anyway, here's what I just saw:

These pictures look almost black and white because of the way the sun was right behind them. 

These are two gorgeous (but kind of "ugly" in the face) Wood Storks who must have noticed our nice full pond and decided to swoop down for dinner

But then they moved over to a spot where the lighting was much better. I thanked them for their consideration, and they stuck out their big black wings and waved at me:

Actually, they seem to use their wings for balance as they wade around in the shallow water with their beaks under the water reaching for whatever good stuff is there that they like:

According to Wikipedia the Wood Stork mostly eats fish, insects, frogs and crabs. I don't think we have crabs in our pond, but I am sure there are LOTS of frogs and little fish. So they should be getting a very good dinner. They are still out there as I write. I hope they stay around for a while. They are interesting to watch.

I am sure after the powerful rain storm that we had over the past 24 hours there must be a lot of stuff swimming around under the water.  These big storks have found a good place to eat with little competition! 

They have a face that only a mother could love, however! LOL.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Wood Stork, for giving us quite a show!

Well, let's see, what else is going on?

It's been a good week for some porch sitting: (although on the day I took this picture it was quite warm and dry!)

Tea drinking either indoors or outdoors...

This was something different for me.  One of our blogging friends, Anne from My Tata's Cottage, mentioned something about drinking "London Fog Tea" one day. I asked her what that was and she sent me a recipe via email.

Here are the ingredients:

1 cup (8 oz.) strongly-brewed earl grey tea, brewed with 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender
1/2 cup (4 oz.) steamed milk (any kind)  (I microwaved the milk since I don't have a milk "steamer".)
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar, or more or less to taste
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract, store-bought or homemade

Brew earl grey tea and lavender together, and steep for 3 minutes (or according to tea instructions). Remove tea bag and strain out the lavender. Stir in remaining ingredients until combined. Serve warm.

Since I already had a box of Earl Grey Lavender Tea bags, I used that.  I am not a huge milk fan and rarely ever put it in tea, but I tried this. It was pretty good. I forgot to put in the vanilla, however, and I think it would have been even better if I had remembered it.  Next time.  

We are still praying for the people of Ukraine as well as the people in Russia. 

They say that Sunflowers are the national flower for Ukraine. These aren't sunflowers, but miniature dandelions or some other such wildflower that is growing in our yard right now. They are golden yellow and only bloom in the sun, so I think that's close enough. I picked them to remind me to keep praying.

Well, I guess that's it for today. I am writing this on Thursday night but most of you won't see it until Friday anyway, so this is my Friday Foto Friends offering for this week.

Have a blessed weekend...and don't forget to spring forward on Saturday night!